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Tuesday 25 June 2013

Introducing Renee Johnson ...

the winner of our guest designer spot from last month, with her very creative interpretation of the June inspiration piece.

 
 I found some stray feathers from my pillow, a plastic fork, a twig from outside, some toilet paper,  sports tape, a gymnastics badge, an old broken bracelet, a set of keys for God knows what, some iron on rhinestone letters and a couple of flowers that fell off a hairclip and I put them all together!!



Hi my name is Renee, and I recently moved from Sydney to sunny Cairns in Qld. I am a single parent with three children, girls aged 8 and 9 and a son aged 6 who feature in most of my work, along with our previous travels.

I first came across scrapbooking around two years ago, after wandering into a scrapbooking shop while looking for a gift for the family member who has everything. I saw the way that the layouts captured the emotions, stories and colours of the photos and just had to give it a go. While my layouts are still hit and miss and I tend to scrapbook in bursts of energy and inspiration I'm really loving the creative outlet and capturing the vibe of (some of) my photos. I'm still experimenting with styles although I'm finding myself gravitating towards layers and bold colours often and I generally create my own colour schemes rather than using collections. I prefer to make double page layouts but generally find them quite difficult!

I discovered the world of online inspiration and challenges about 2 months ago and have been extremely busy creating new layouts daily, hoping to get my photo piles scrapped, improve my scrapbooking and win some of the amazing products floating around (Why are the products I want the most always available only overseas....)

I have to say that I have really enjoyed the ARTastic challenges as I love being able to take a small piece of inspiration from artworks to put into my layouts without being too constraining on the requirements and my layouts for ARTtastic have been some of my most creative so far. I'd really like to thank the team at ARTastic for having me as a guest designer, as a relative newbie on this scene it's such an honour that someone is interested in who I am, and that my work could inspire others in some small way. 
 
Please visit me at my blog www.reneewasaweener.blogspot.com.au

 
 
Here are some more samples of Renee's work ...
 

 

Welcome.  It is so lovely to have you with us on ARTastic this month Renee.


Remember you have until midnight June 30th to submit your entries.  We'd love to see your work.  You could be a guest designer on ARTastic too.

Saturday 15 June 2013

A slight change, more inspiration and some May winners ...

It seems our criteria this month might have been overly ambitious so in the interest of fair play and normal blood pressure !  I'm going to change the criteria for June slightly. To the current entrants and the ARTastic creative team I give extra big pats on the back for ingenuity and perseverance and thank you for your outstanding efforts in coming up with some amazing pages :)

So for the remainder of the month we will accept any entry that has at least 3 recycled items on it.  This is really easy to do - think product packaging, buttons, lace, clothing tags, shopping dockets, junk mail, cardboard from any box, coins, tokens, old birthday cards, pieces of fabric, twine, foil, scraps of paper, etc etc.



Why not have a closer look at what our first team members used on their layouts and now the inspiration from the second group shown below and perhaps use some of their ideas.

I used old clothing labels (tags), back of packaging, doily, buttons from old clothes, burlap, paper (and flower) is from the kids art project making recycled handmade paper (!!) and bakers twine from my kitchen. So really I only used a bought scrapbook page for my base.
 
My piece is a vinyl sample and I have used a children's book for the images. All the other elements are from the leftover stash.
 
I have used a brochure from our hotel, money I kept, tickets and a snippet of a map. There is some cork, hessian and an old doily too. The background is actually from the backing of a Prima Alpha pack, loved the words!
 
...using torch bulbs and string
 
I've used wallpaper in place of patterned paper, flowers cut from a vintage vinyl tablecloth, old buttons, lace and an old office invoice.
 
 

And now - our May winners and grinners ....

We'd also like to thank our two main sponsors this month, Peta from Scrapbooking From Scratch and James from Alacraft, for their generous support.

ARTastic followers can enjoy 20% off at Alacraft with discount code ARTS20.
 
Alacraft has free product giveaways every month. Please visit the site and enter your email address on the homepage or on the page indicated in the link and you will be automatically entered into the draw for $25 of free products for that month. People are welcome to enter as many months as they like, they just need enter their email address each time.
 
 Alacraft is a family business originating from an established bricks-and-mortar store and stocks a range of quality materials including lace, ribbon, yarn, scrapbooking supplies, stickers, iron-on motifs, quilting fabric, craft flowers and much more.
 
  Check out Alacraft today!

  


Scrapbooking from Scratch is an online scrapbooking site specialising in Designer Scrapbooking Kits but we carry many other scrapping products from NEW releases to those essential items we all need. My talented design team work with 1 -2 kits per month each to give you inspiration & ideas.

Please note my kits are never released on a set day of the month - just whenever I receive new stock so join my newsletter or connect with me on Facebook to get the latest release notifications and updates on blind challenges and monthly comps. 
 


Congratulations go to ...
  

Stephi who has won a $25 gift voucher from Alacraft.
 
Deb K who has won a lovely prize from Scrapbooking From Scratch.

Chris Sexton who has won the Guest Designer's choice prize from Tone-Lill
and
Lizzy Hill who has also won a small RAK - Tone-Lill loved both of your pages

 Random draw prize goes to Valerie.

We would like to offer Jackie Edwards a guest designer spot for July.

The Creative Team winner for May actually goes to me, Jane  - thank you team for your votes :)
 
The special prize for those who participated in our NSD celebrations and submitted an entry for May goes to Dale T.

Congratulations everyone.  Could the winners please email me at jjjustjane@bigpond.com with your postal details and I will see your prize gets out to you.


 

We'd love to see more entries this month and since I've made it easier for all of you there are no excuses!!   Remember we happily accept all forms of paper crafting for your entry and encourage both digital and international submissions.  All we ask is that you create an original entry for our challenge although you are most welcome to combine with a sketch challenge if you wish.  You have until midnight last day of the month to submit your entry.


Next week we will be introducing you to last months winner of a guest designer spot,
Renee Johnson.
 
Don't forget - Each month we will be selecting someone from amongst our entries to be a guest designer for one of our upcoming challenges - it could be you!!
 





Friday 14 June 2013

A new challenge blog ...

I am launching a new sister challenge blog to ARTastic called Paper and Pixels on the 1st of July and currently I'm having a call for members for our first design team. Please follow the link to find out all the details - I'd love to hear from you !! 

Friday 7 June 2013

Introducing Mandy Dodd ...

our first Guest Designer for June with her delightful layout using the June inspiration.

Most of the strips I used were patterned/reverse side of the barcode/title
strips of 12x12's  cut off to be thrown away, along with any other scrap
paper I could gather.
 
Hi, my name is Mandy (mandysea) and I live in Tasmania in a cottage by the sea and pretty much the sea is our way of life here.
I spend a lot of time photographing my daughters, and also capturing birds, lizards and wildlife with my camera, My scrapping style is probably Shabby Chic with an arty side using mixed media -  paints, gesso, mists, and   lacy bits along with layering and texture techniques. I love to feel these things in my hands and most of all
- I love to see the shadow they can cast. 

If I had some things that are undeniably me - it would be that I love to
match some part of my photo to my background paper.. and sometimes extend the photo into the scrapping area, rarely use pattern paper (because mostly I don't always know what to do with it), and usually draw a border around my papers edge or fold it to suggest a frame. These are not always, but mostly, and while scrapping fall unconsciously into these habits ... they just kind of evolve, sometimes it  works, sometimes it doesn't.

It's not very often I start with a photo - that usually comes last.  I know, I know - is that weird??  But the motivation from either the criteria, technique or the products pretty much takes over and with all the gazillion photos (rolling eyes here) I have stored away- something is bound to fit - right?  LOL!

I was so thrilled to be scrapping with the criteria set for this challenge - how extraordinary and motivating it is!  All those strips of paper!! Straight away, I set about cutting strips and pasting down onto cardstock. At first I thought I would cut out some butterflies from it and use just those.  But as soon as I removed the butterflies, it was the background left behind I loved the most - the negative part.  So the butterflies were set aside!

Thanks soooo much for this wonderful opportunity to be Guest Designer for June!  Too much fun already!
 
Please visit me on my blog www.teacupofscrapisms.blogspot.com


Here are some more of Mandy's amazing pages ...





Mandy, we are so happy to have you join with us at ARTastic. 

 
Remember - you have until the end of the month to get your own interpretations of this month's inspiration to us!  We cant wait to see what you can come up with for your pages for June.  Don't forget someone from amongst the entries will be given the opportunity to guest with us and it could well be you!
 
 
 

Saturday 1 June 2013

Some environmental June inspiration ...


World Environment Day is celebrated June 5th, so in honour of this day I thought we might all participate in a challenge with a difference.

Introducing Robin's Nest by environmental artist  Susan Schenk. 

 
Criteria - the use of recycled material to feature prominently on your work (ie minimal commercial products).  Hint - think ephemera and recycled items
 
If you think this can't be done then look at the amazing work our creative team has come up with this month - all without the use of expensive commercial products.  It is incredible what can be done with a little creative thought!!
 
 
A little about Susan Schenk
 

My art is an invitation to see beyond the apparent. From a distance, my collages appear to be paintings. Up close, they are complicated jumbles of disparate parts. These collages are similar to our own lives; appealing when viewed from afar but somewhat fractured when inspected more intimately.

My use of discarded materials as paint fosters the idea of finding beauty in the overlooked. I find treasures hidden in the trash. By using recycled magazines, maps and other ephemera, I leave a small carbon footprint and more importantly, carve out a trail of enjoyment for others.
 
Now some inspiration from the first of our talented creative team.  Please call back on the 15th when we will announce the winners for May and reveal the creative layouts from the remainder of our team.

used product packaging from her daughter's play toy

the only scrapbook supplies used is the background paper, a stencil
and the title :)
 
used a Goldmark jewellery flyer to make the two flowers and the woven pattern under the clothing/packaging labels, plus ribbon off the shoulder of a new top

 
absolutely everything here is recycled except the tiny alpha stickers - the base is a torn pizza box and I've used a mix of clothing tags and toy packaging
 
used an old encyclopaedia and a brown paper bag from Typo
 
 
Please upload the DIRECT link to your actual entry with the link tool on the LEFT by midnight on June 30th, 2013. We'd love to see your paper, digital, card or off the page submissions but please remember we appreciate original entries (you may combine with a sketch).

Looking forward to seeing what you all create. 

Our first Guest Designer for June, Mandy Dodd will be joining us next week.  Please call back to see her very creative and inspiring take on the challenge this month.